Bomb blast kills senior police officer in Egypt's Sinai, home to an Islamic State affiliate

EL-ARISH, Egypt – Egypt's Interior Ministry says a roadside bomb has killed a senior police officer in the northwestern region of the Sinai Peninsula, home of the country's Islamic State affiliate.

In a statement Wednesday, the ministry says Brig. Gen. Ahmed Ibrahim, who was deputy head of criminal investigations in Egypt's North Sinai province, was killed on his way back from a joint police and army raid in el-Arish, the provincial capital.

The ministry added that a second officer was wounded, without elaborating.

The long-restive northwestern region of Sinai has seen a spike in attacks targeting security forces since the military overthrow of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in 2013. A local Islamic militant group has pledged its allegiance to the Islamic State group's leader, turning it into an affiliate of the group.